GMO Foods

More than 60 nations require labeling of genetically modified food. But American consumers are left in the dark without the basic right to know if the food they eat or feed their families has been genetically modified.

Genetically modified foods were introduced to the public in the 1990’s. Today, they can be found in more than 75 percent of our food supply.

Independent polls show that more than 90 percent of Americans of all political stripes support labeling GMO food. Momentum for labeling requirements continues to grow. Nearly 1.4 million Americans have joined a petition urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require GMO food labeling, labeling initiatives have been introduced in more than 30 states, and three states have passed labeling laws.

On July 29, 2016 President Obama signed into law (Pub. Law 114-216) compromise legislation passed by Congress that would preempt state labeling laws but create a national, mandatory GMO labeling standard for all GMO foods.

As part of its process for implementing the mandatory GMO disclosure law passed by Congress last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has published 30 questions under consideration for USDA’s proposed GMO labeling rule.

On Thursday, the Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, President Trump's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Here are 10 questions committee members should ask.

This week, EWG joined forces with our colleagues at Waterkeeper Alliance again to show how industrial animal farms can wreak havoc on public health and the environment. Through startling aerial imagery, the report documents a number of factory farms along North Carolina’s floodplain that were swamped by Hurricane Matthew, exposing local waterways to a deluge of animal waste from swine and poultry barns, and brimming manure pits.

The Environmental Working Group issued the following statement today after the Senate Agriculture Committee narrowly passed a version of the House-adopted Deny Americans the Right to Know, or DARK Act.

For a variety of reasons, EWG does not support the Roberts-Stabenow legislation to establish mandatory, federal labeling of genetically engineered food. That said, we are grateful to many members of the Senate who stood up for consumers to twice defeat the “DARK Act,” which would have blocked both federal and state labeling laws, and who subsequently secured important concessions from the pesticide, food and agriculture lobby. In the face of a massive industry lobbying campaign, their commitment to consumers’ right to know and states’ right to require GMO labeling is exemplary.

"Americans should have the right to know what’s in their food and how its’ produced, just like consumers on 64 other nations. If Congress acts to craft a GMO labeling system, Congress should ensure that any GMO disclosure is national, mandatory, and allows consumers to determine whether food has been produced with genetic engineering at a glance," said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for EWG.

Monsanto marketed its potent weed killer glyphosate – brand name Roundup -- and the corn and soybeans genetically engineered to withstand it by claiming that it would replace other, more toxic weed killers such as atrazine on American farmland

After an expert panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences issued a long-awaited report on genetically engineered foods, much of the news coverage said it gave GMOs an unqualified seal of approval. In fact, the report pointed to an array of concerns and unanswered questions. Here are the top ten findings of the report that most traditional and social media missed – or got plain wrong.

Without mandatory GMO labeling, consumers will not be able to reflect their values in their food choices. That’s one conclusion of an expert panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences to assess the genetic engineering of crops. The panel released its report this morning.

Today’s National Academy of Sciences report on genetically engineered foods takes a major policy step in calling on the food and agriculture industries to increase transparency regarding GMO foods, EWG said.

As the deadline nears for companies to comply with Vermont’s GMO labeling, Big Food and Big Ag lobbyists are making increasingly desperate claims about the impact of mandatory labeling of foods with genetically modified ingredients. Tomorrow, the National Academy of Sciences will release a report on GMO crops. We’re hoping it will bust some of the myths being circulated by labeling opponents such as Monsanto

When the Environmental Protection Agency recently released and then abruptly withdrew a draft document on the cancer risks posed by the pesticide glyphosate, Monsanto jumped at the chance to say that its signature chemical had been exonerated.